Sunday night, the NBA hosted the All-Star game, a collection of the best players in the NBA, playing in an exhibition game. The big names are a huge draw, but the game itself is nothing more than a circus act. Nobody plays defense, nobody cares if they win or lose.
The same could be said for pretty much any All-Star game in professional sports. It's basically a scrimmage and the intensity level is nowhere close to where it should be.
Enter Olympic Hockey.
At the current Olympic games in Vancouver, almost every team in the hockey tournament features NHL stars, like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and a plethora of San Jose Sharks. Most of you have never watched hockey, BUT this is hockey at its finest.
Imagine if you could have two NBA All-Star teams, playing 100%, fighting for the ball, trash talking, elbowing each other hard down low and wanting to win the game. Well, this is exactly what the Olympic hockey tournament is about.
Earlier today, Team USA's Bobby Ryan of the Ducks scored against his teammate Jonas Hiller, who plays for Team Switzerland. Only in hockey will you see these type of matchups where teammates go up against each other -- unless Carlos Boozer vs Mohmet Okur makes you lick your lips.
In 1992, the USA formed the Dream Team, the 11 best basketball players in the world and Christian Laettner, to compete in the Summer Olympics. They absolutely crushed everybody. It was an All-Star team that steamrolled their way to the gold medal.
Team Canada and Team Russia in hockey are almost assembled the same way, two powerhouses that are likely and favored to meet in the Gold Medal Game when it is all said and done.
Before 2009 ended, I went down to the Shark Tank and got some interviews with some of the Sharks who are representing Team Canada in the Olympic Games.
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